The Reward of Helping

     The above collage consist of the pictures the staff graciously took of me while I practiced reading with the children. Working with the children gives me the opportunity to watch them improve their skills. Seeing them gain proficiency in academics is truly rewarding. These children will be adults in just a few years and will need the skills they learn in the mission school. They will be parents and leaders.  Perhaps they will become doctors or politicians. Wherever God places them they will need the abilities they mastered at the mission school. It is a privilege to help them along their journey.

     I also tutored in math, science, english, spelling, writing, and history. The mission school has a rewards system that was in progress the two weeks I was there. The students have four to six workbooks. Each of which needs to be completed within three weeks. The third week the rewards of finishing begin to be reaped. On Monday if a child has finished the necessary requirements a ribbon is place over their desk. The ribbon shows who is finished and who still needs to work. Starting on Wednesday the children without ribbons aren't allowed to go to break or participate in extracurricular activities. On Friday the children with ribbons are given a special dessert for lunch. Part of the tutoring task involved helping the students without ribbons achieve the goal. It was a pleasure to watch the children receive their ribbons. Sarah (a supervisor in the school, of whom I will discuss later) mentioned to me that there were more ribbons in the school that week than she had seen in a long time. I had the privilege to help several students achieve that goal. Many of the students at the mission are academically challenged or are distracted incredibly easily. They simply need an extra push to be able to achieve their goals. Often the mission staff are incredibly busy and can't set aside the time needed to give those students that extra push. It does take work, but the work was worth it. I felt fulfilled during my time there. It was nice to eat with the children on Friday and watch them eat their treat. (This time it was apple pie with vanilla ice-cream.)